Читать книгу The Sierras of Extremadura. 32 half and full-day walks in western Spain's hills онлайн

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Agriculture has provided numerous trees that add their own colourful blossoms in spring: olive, cherry, orange and almond trees have been cultivated for over a millennium. The sight of the Jerte valley in spring, covered in cherry blossom as far as the eye can see, is unforgettable. The leaves of the fig trees of Almoharín give shade in the summer, and in the winter their bare branches add a sculptural structure to the countryside.

Within the huge forests are the indigenous oaks – holm, cork and Pyrenean. Spanish chestnut, terebinth, alder and a variety of pine underpin the diversity of trees so important to the ecology of the area.

Human history

During the long Stone Age, small clans of hunter-gatherers arrived in the Iberian Peninsula, as evidenced by cave paintings in the region. By the Bronze Age, settlements of livestock herders, agriculturalists and harvesters were established. In the Iron Age separate societies emerged.

Rock painting, Sierra de Peñas Blancas (Walk 27)

The Phoenicians were the first traders to reach up the rivers into the area that would become Extremadura. They were followed by the Greeks, whose main trading partners were the Celtiberians, a group of distinct and merged tribes of Iberians and Celts. They had arrived, possibly from Gaul, in sporadic waves between 3000 and 700BC. The Lusitani, who settled on both sides of the River Tajo, and the Vettones, their allies, who settled in the Alagón valley, along with the Turduli/Turdetani were the principal tribes occupying Extremadura. The countryside is littered with the reminders of their tradition of building dolmens to bury their dead.